The Linux Foundation Adopts Sound Open Firmware Project Enabling Developers to Adapt Operating Systems for Audio Devices

During the Embedded Linux Conference in Portland, OR, The Linux Foundation announced that Sound Open Firmware (SOF) has become a Linux Foundation project. With significant engineering and code contributions from Intel Corporation, SOF includes a digital signal processing (DSP) firmware and an SDK that together provide infrastructure and development tools for developers working on audio or signal processing. Intel and Google support SOF and invite others to join them in advancing the project.

While many audio drivers ship with open source components, firmware has remained closed and shipped as binary modules. As a result, firmware issues have often been difficult to address. Sound Open Firmware is an open source, platform/architecture independent audio firmware and SDK intended for the Linux and open source communities. The intention of SOF is to provide an open audio firmware infrastructure that provides features not found in proprietary firmware, allowing easier integration with audio hardware, and foster innovation

SOF currently supports the Tensilica/Cadence xtensa audio DSP architecture found in many modern devices, with platform support for Intel Baytrail and Cherrytrail platforms. The firmware is modular and abstracts the architecture/platform layers like the Linux kernel, so can be ported to other DSP architectures or target platforms. The SDK provides a compiler, emulator and image builder tools, all the tools needed to build and run the firmware.

With SOF, developers and users may be able to debug and resolve issues more quickly and optimize footprint and performance by adding only the functionality needed for their products. It will also offer developers the ability to improve security by independently assessing code quality. The project is the first fully open source BSD/MIT-licensed audio firmware. 

“We’re pleased to welcome Sound Open Firmware to The Linux Foundation and to support the SOF community in its growth,” says Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation. “By giving developers access to the hardware interface to the operating system, SOF will help them add more value and customization to their products.”

The SOF open source SDK comes with five components: the firmware source code, firmware tools to convert firmware into appropriate formats and debug, a tool chain for firmware image creation, an emulator to trace and debug drivers and firmware, and ASoC Linux kernel drivers that are required to register the DSP and firmware. These tools include scripts to help developers evaluate tradeoffs between memory, audio quality, and processor load. SOF will provide code signature tools for production devices. The project also has GNU Debugger integration, a feature contributed by Google.

According to Imad Sousou, vice president and general manager of the Open Source Technology Center, at Intel Corporation, "SOF was inspired by our experience enabling audio components and capabilities for client devices built using our silicon and customized by system vendors. Full code transparency provides the ability to improve security by independently assessing code quality. SOF firmware and drivers are platform- and architecture-agnostic, which simplifies porting and integration with other hardware platforms and DSP architectures."

Founded in 2000, The Linux Foundation helps the world’s top developers and companies to build ecosystems that accelerate open technology development and industry adoption. Together with the worldwide open source community, it is solving the hardest technology problems by creating the largest shared technology investment in history.
www.linuxfoundation.org | www.sofproject.org